How to get great music for your church for one small price!
How do you, as a church musician, provide your church with good quality music (especially newer contemporary praise and worship choruses) with a limited budget and no time for checking to see if you can get copyright permission to use the music?
CCLI may be a great resource for your church! Read more below about the basic CCLI premise and the various options that you can use to customize your CCLI license.
What is CCLI?
According to their website, "Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) was established in 1988 to provide churches with simple, affordable solutions to complex copyright issues. CCLI helps churches maintain their integrity and avoid costly lawsuits, while also giving churches the freedom to worship expressively and spontaneously."
Basically, through CCLI, your church can get copyright and LEGAL access to song sheets (featuring lyrics, samples and transposable lead sheets, chord sheets and hymn/vocal sheets), and professional-edited movie clips.
CCLI is the essential license to have to stay legal and ethical in your music ministry! For more information on copyright laws, please visit my lens on Copyright Laws and the Church Musician
Top 25 Songs
CCLI publishes a list of the Top 25 songs for each recording cycle. Here are the Top 25 songs, from the reporting cycle February, 2009 for the United States.The CCLI Top 5 songs currently are:
- How Great Is Our God (Tomlin, Chris \ Reeves, Jesse \ Cash, Ed)
- Here I Am To Worship (Hughes, Tim)
- Blessed Be Your Name (Redman, Beth \ Redman, Matt
- Open The Eyes Of My Heart (Baloche, Paul)
- Forever (Tomlin, Chris)
You can also check out the Top Songs for Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, UK, Canada and South Africa.
More Resources for Cheap Choir Music
- REJOICE Music Website
- The REJOICE Music website has over 850 listings of choral sheet music, songbooks, cantatas / musicals, orchestrations, instrumental music, piano and organ music, accompaniment tapes and trax, and MORE!
- REJOICE Music on eBay
- REJOICE Music on eBay has about 250 listings of mostly choral music. REJOICE Music also lists auction items, mostly new choral songbooks.
- REJOICE Music on eCrater
- REJOICE Music on eCrater features great accompaniment cassette tapes - many of which are not available in CD format. Plus listening cassette tapes for older Christian musicals and songbooks, as well as cassettes from Christian recording artists. Many of these items are NO LONGER IN PRODUCTION and getting harder and harder to find.
Church Copyright License
The cost is based on the size of your church's weekly attendance. CLICK HERE to view a chart with costs. For example, a church with a weekly attendance of 175 would pay $170.00 per year.
- Print songs, hymns and lyrics in bulletins, programs, liturgies and songsheets for use in congregational singing.
- Create your own customized songbooks or hymnals for use in congregational singing.
- Create overhead transparencies, slides or use any other format whereby song lyrics are visually projected (such as computer graphics and projection) for use in congregational singing.
- Arrange, print and copy your own arrangements (vocal and instrumental) of songs used for congregational singing, where no published version is available.
- Record your worship services (audio or video) provided you only record live music. Accompaniment tracks cannot be reproduced. You may charge up to $4 each for audiocassette tapes and CDs, and $12 each for videotapes and DVDs.
Books on Worship Ministry
The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations
Amazon Price: $13.25 (as of 12/20/2009) 
List Price: $16.99
Used Price: $1.62
The Unquenchable Worshipper: Coming Back to the Heart of Worship (Worship Series)
Amazon Price: $9.35 (as of 12/20/2009)
List Price: $12.99
Used Price: $1.12
Why Church Matters: Worship, Ministry, and Mission in Practice
Amazon Price: $19.99 (as of 12/20/2009)
List Price: $19.99
Used Price: $3.98
Shekinah Glory Ministry - Live
Amazon Price: $15.99 (as of 12/20/2009)
List Price: $17.98
Used Price: $11.44
Optional Features
SongSelect is an optional add-on to the CCLI license, at an additional cost ranging from $44 to $179 (based on how many of the features you wish).SongSelect provides customized lead sheets, chord sheets, and vocal/hymn sheets, which can be customized and printed in any key you wish. CLICK HERE to view the SongSelect demo on the CCLI website.
You can also purchase a CVLI (Church Video Licensing International) license which will allow your church to show videos and DVDs in a public setting.
The ScreenVue license llows your church to show professionally-edited clips from major motion pictures as a sermon illustration. There are two plans available, for either $99 or $149.
Developing a Media Ministry
Video Ministry: Using Media in Worship Without Going Hollywood
Amazon Price: $21.00 (as of 12/20/2009)
The Wired Church: Making Media Ministry
Amazon Price: (as of 12/20/2009)
Media Ministry Made Easy: A Practical Guide to Visual Communication
Amazon Price: (as of 12/20/2009)
For the Sake of the Gospel: A Media Ministry Primer
Amazon Price: (as of 12/20/2009)
I Welcome your Feedback
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Reply
- rlmodranski rlmodranski Aug 25, 2009 @ 9:17 pm
- I've been enrolling church in CCLI for more than 10 years now. It's so great that there is this affordable means to allow churches have great worship music and keep it legal.
Keep getting the word out!!!
Lynne
My Lensography
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Reply
- thomaskster thomaskster Jun 29, 2009 @ 9:54 pm
- This is great information. You may also find it useful to publish this information on www.learningzen.com, an online course publishing site. Thanks.
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Reply
- kab kab Apr 29, 2009 @ 11:43 am
- The Giant Squid Greeters are kicking off a fun team challenge. You are hereby formally invited to join my team: Kab's Fab Squid Squad. I think you'd be a great addition to the Squid Squad. The deadline to join is May 1.
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Reply
- BeautifulBibAprons BeautifulBibAprons Aug 8, 2007 @ 2:36 pm
- Good, informative lens. 5 stars!
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Reply
- awelldressedbullet awelldressedbullet Aug 7, 2007 @ 11:19 am
- Another great lens, and what helpful information! - Kathy
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by rejoicemusic
I've been a church musician for a good portion of my life, and own an online business focused on helping choir directors, worship leaders, and other m...
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